I really like the idea of sleeper trains. I think I like the idea more than the reality and I think my idea of sleeper trains comes from watching old films where sleeper carriages were roomy and glamorous and they all had ensuite bathrooms. This is not the reality of sleeper trains today.
Last year I took a sleeper train in Italy, from Bari in the south to Milan in the north. Here I learned the reality of the sleeper carriage is that it’s a lot smaller than it appears in the photographs on the website. There’s not a lot of room for two people to stand up at the same time, let alone pack in a hurry, because the train arrived half an hour early, and you didn’t realise that when the train guard brought your breakfast 30 minutes early that was a sign. There was no ensuite bathroom on this train, although we had a small basin in our room. The toilets were down the hall and available for use by the whole carriage. In the morning, one cubicle has a pizza box with half the pizza in it on the floor. I have to assume someone decided to use the train toilets as a place to have dinner. Disgusting.
This year, I’m taking the Caledonian sleeper to Inverness and back. The sleeper was on sale for January and February, because no one wants to go to the far north of Scotland in the darkest and coldest months of the year. Only the crazy people and the people who like sleeper trains. You can put me in both categories.
This journey will involve 24 hours on a train – 12 hours each direction – and 36 hours on the ground in Inverness. Crazy, but it’s 25% discounted on the regular Caledonian sleeper fare. We figure it’s worth it. Actually it’s more me figuring it’s worth it. Husband is just going along with the idea so I can stop talking about sleeper trains.
Friday night
We booked the higher status Club carriage (with en-suite bathroom) for our journey to Inverness. Having a Club room reservation entitled us to access to the Guest Lounge at Euston station before departure.
The Guest Lounge was a small private room at the side of platform 1 at Euston station, where the Caledonian Sleeper departs. Guest Lounge guests can order food for a price (the same food available in the Club Room on the train) or help themselves to hot and cold drinks and snacks (free).
We brought food from Marks & Spencer but also helped ourselves to snacks and drinks. We were about to start a 12 hour train journey. We didn’t need a large amount of food. We ate because we were bored.
Forty minutes before departure an announcement informed us of the priority boarding for club class passengers. Passengers for each destination on the Higjlander route (Fort William, Aberdeen, and Inverness) were told where to find the person responsible for their train.
Euan, our train manager, told us where to find our carriage and where to find the Club Car, should we need more food. (We didn’t).
Our train was headed to all points far north – Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness. At some point in the night the train would split into three but hopefully we would sleep through that.
We boarded the train and found our room. It was small but well organised. Two bunks made up with a duvet and pillows, a sink, an attached bathroom. It felt bigger than the Italian sleeper compartment even without the addition of the bathroom. We were given a comfort pack of soap, an eye mask and ear plugs along with some chocolate and two small bottles of water.
Having eaten already, we had no need for the club car, but we went down to have a look, before heading back to our cabin. The Club cabins include breakfast in your ticket. You have to pre order, so we chose our options and hung the breakfast order card on the cabin door for Euan to collect later.
There wasn’t much to do once we unpacked, and after a few nights of poor sleep, we waited for the train to depart at 21:15, then went to sleep early. Or at least Husband did; I stayed up for an hour or so, reading Paul Theroux The Great Railway Bazaar until after ten o’clock. (I like reading books about travel while travelling.)
Even with all the lights out, the cabin was bright due to safety signage and light switches illuminated in the dark. You get an eye mask as part of the guest package and you do need the eye mask if you’re sensitive to light. I wore my eye mask. Husband hates eye masks and is light sensitive. He suffered.
Because I was reading The Great Railway Bazaar before sleeping, I dreamt of missing a train. The unknown fate of Duffill on the Orient Express in the book chased me through my dreams as I tried to find a taxi to catch me up to my missed train.
Saturday morning
The alarm woke us at 7:00am. It was some time ahead of our 08:45 arrival in Inverness but 07:30 was the latest time possible for breakfast service.
It wasn’t a great sleep but I did get some sleep; my Duffill-related dreams proof I had slept. The cabin was warm and the beds were comfortable, long enough for me (160cm/5ft 3) but not quite the right size for Husband (180cm/5ft10). The en suite bathroom provided us with a hot shower, enabling us to start the day feeling clean if not completely rested.
We ate breakfast in the Club Car. We chose the Smoked fish frittata which was delicious if a small portion, but after an unsteady night it was enough. The breakfast menu also offered Vegan and gf options, as well as giving passengers the option to sit in the club car or eat in their room.
The negative of winter travel in the north of Scotland is the mornings are dark; about an hour darker than London. We were finishing breakfast at 8am and the sky was only just lightening from black to dark blue. The Sleeper promotional material always emphasises sitting back and watching the beautiful Scottish landscape rolling by. Fine if you travel in the long light days of the summer months; not so possible in winter.
We went back to our cabin after breakfast and opened the window blind. The landscape was starting to appear out of the darkness in a pink haze of sunrise. Our view was mainly of the many trees by the train track, but occasionally the view opened out to hills and farmland. I know the landscape of the rail lines between London and Glasgow and London and Edinburgh quite well, but this area to the north is unfamiliar. (Although I did work up this way once… I’ll tell you about that some other time.)
The pink newness of the morning had burned off into greyness when our train pulled into Inverness station a few minutes ahead of the expected 08:45 arrival.
The sleeper passengers stumbled off the train into the early morning light of Inverness like so many zombies, us included.
The morning was warmer than we had expected, and brighter, so we decided to walk out to Carmac Point, where the Caledonian Canal flows out into the Inverness Firth.
The walk was longer than expected and took us through an industrial part of Inverness, not giving a great first impression, but the views were great once we reached the point, looking out across the water in the early morning light.
We took a different path back into town, along the Caledonian Canal. This part of town was popular with dog walkers. Inverness folk are friendly, and we were wished many a “Good morning,” as we walked. I don’t think this happens in London.
Inverness is also the largest town in the Highlands, and as such is a commercial centre with a number of out-of-town shopping centres. We walked through one of these when we stepped off the canal path on our way back into town.
It was after 10:00am now and the town centre was a little busier. We stopped for coffee and cake at the Rendezvous Vintage Cinema Cafe. Deserved, we felt, as we had been walking for more than an hour.
Fuelled up, we walked around the town, taking in a few key sights, namely Leakey’s bookshop and Old Town Curiosities.
I really wanted to buy something at Leakey’s. We nosied around the stacks of books for a long time, lingering near the food fired heater from time to time, as the bookshop is in an old church and not inclined to hold its heat. In the end I didn’t find anything so we left empty handed.
Old Town Curiosities was also in an old chapel, also very cold inside. It had a variety of interesting things – jewellery, ceramics, paintings, memorabilia, furniture.
After a late lunch, we went back to Old Town Curiosities and bought something we had been talking about since we left.
“I knew you’d be back,” said the woman working there.
After a little more walking around town, we felt it was getting late, although it wasn’t yet 4 o’clock. But it was getting on towards sunset, and we hadn’t had a lot of sleep, so it was time to head to our B&B.
I can’t remember why we picked Ardross Glencairn B&B, but we had an excellent and warm room. The temperature was dropping down towards freezing when we got in, so we were happy to take our shoes off, sit on the bed with a cup of tea, and watch some Midsomer Murders on TV.
Around 7pm, when Midsomer was taking a break, we went out in search of dinner. We didn’t go very far. We passed an Indian place on the corner, Tiger on the Wall. It was raining and the food smelt good so we opted to eat there.
Sunday
After the less-than-full night’s sleep on the Sleeper, we set the alarm to let us sleep as late as possible. Breakfast finished at 9:00am and check out was 10:30. With much of the city closed on Sundays (the further north you go in Scotland, the more seriously people take Sunday as the Lord’s day) we had nowhere to go.
Nowhere but the Ness Islands walk, a pleasant stroll along the River Ness, across some bridges to small islands in the middle of the river.
From there we walked into town where some shops had opened. Despite having only recently had breakfast we stopped for a coffee, a chance to sit in a warm place.
I had some admin to do – a faulty hat I’d bought online to return to a shop. I could have done this in London but knowing we had a whole Sunday to fill in Inverness, it made more sense to do it there.
The sun came out while we were in the shop, so we walked the Ness Islands again, taking the same photos but now with blue sky in the background.
We crossed one of the bridges over the river Ness and saw the mountains of the Black Isle in the distance. I remember these mountains from previous time in Inverness. I love a vista of mountains or hills and I particularly love the view of these rounded hills looking like bread rolls dusted with flour.
The short day was drawing in again, and we realised we were running out of daylight, and time in Inverness.
To escape the cold and darkness, we went to the Black Isle Bar, a tap room with 28 beers on available. We spent a happy couple of hours here… until I realised I’d lost my wallet somewhere during the day. Luckily due to modern technology I was able to freeze my cards, but that didn’t solve the problem of where I’d lost my wallet.
Sunday night
We’d heard the women working in the cafe where we ate on Saturday talking about a Mexican place where they’d been out for dinner and drinks. Husband and I had done some research and identified this establishment as the EscoBar.
After leaving the Black Isle Bar, we headed to the EscoBar for dinner. Having not really had any lunch, we ordered a lot of food. And cocktails, because technically we are on holiday and the place did great cocktail options.
It was sometime after eight we rolled out of the Escobar, around the corner, across the road and into the train station. We had time to settle into our non-club cabin (which looked almost identical to the club cabin we had on the journey up, but without the door to the bathroom) (non-club rooms are not en-suite).
Mistake: we failed to account for dehydration caused by walking around in the cold all day, not drinking enough water, drinking too much alcohol before and with dinner and the cabin being very well heated. We collapsed into our bunks and managed to drift off to sleep but woke around 2am, gasping with thirst. Husband found a bottle of soft drink in his bag left from our meal deals purchased on Friday night. We gulped it down but it somehow didn’t satiate the thirst.
Monday morning
Despite being dehydrated and slightly hungover as a result, we arrived reasonably well rested in London on Monday morning.
If we had had a smaller meal, less alcohol and more water in Sunday, I would have felt fine. But after getting home, drinking a lot of water and having a shower, I was fine for working.
Verdict? The sleeper is useful to cross a large distance across the country overnight. The beds are comfortable. There are relatively few compartments in each carriage so even if you’re not en suite, having access to the bathroom at the end of the carriage shouldn’t be a problem. However the cost is not cheap, even if you factor in the cost of a hotel saved.
Would I do it again? Yes, but preferably in summer to enjoy the scenery of the Highlands on the journey up. And next time I’ll make sure I’m staying for longer than one night.
Tales from Tobhamhor 